1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a building arrangement and methods to maximize the number of houses with a line of sight to a view, and more particularly to such an arrangement and method in which the lots are arranged along string lines connectable to define an undulating path.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An important economic goal in locating buildings or homes adjacent an attractive view is to maximize the number of houses which have visual and physical access to that view. View lots command a premium price in the housing market and a prudent developer takes every advantage of topography to provide some kind of view for every house in the development. If the view site is a lake, for example, and the surrounding land is generally flat, the developer typically arranges the view or premium lots side by side around the lake perimeter. Houses in the second row have virtually no view, except what might be available by offsetting the houses in the second row so that a view is available through the side yards of the front row of houses. Even this possibility is not available where the first row of houses are built close together without any appreciable side yard spaces, or where walls are built which obstruct the view of the second row. Obviously, physical access is also not available to any but the front row of houses.
As a consequence of this prior art housing arrangement, only the houses in the perimeter or first row command premium prices and the developer must settle for much lower prices on lots not in the perimeter row.
Although reference has been made to a lake as the view of interest, the same dilemma faces developers of lots adjacent any "view", which could be any open space or "green belt", a golf course, a mountain range, river, etc. The increasingly high price of land renders this problem of better utilization of view property even more acute.
Compounding the problem of maximizing the number of view lots is the complexity of laying out such lots over uneven terrain, making them generally uniform in size and configuration so that identical house plans can be used for economy of construction, and arranging the lots such that there is ease of access to streets and utilities. Non-uniform lot configurations and boundaries usually require custom made, one of a kind house plans unsuited to computerized planning.